Popular Culture and Communication Notes
CMN 2180
Sept 12 2013
Business Model
1. Aggregate Audiences -> to hold them captive during advertisements
Crude in the 60-70s because there were only 3 networks, and thus large audiences
2. Segmentation -> refinement in the business model
Advertisers could separate groups based on the type of audience
Packaging up demographic groups and selling them to advertisers
Principles of the production of popular culture
Contradictions embedded -> what aspects of reinforce the current system and which are against it
We have a classes system -> Marxists think that these classes are submissive
Late 1800s – early 1900s -> working class and what they talked about was inferior; always looked down upon
40-50s -> Frankfurt school very Marx heavy
They saw the masses as being weak minded; having deficient genes
The arts did the job of uniting the masses to appreciate “proper” literature/music/art
Hypodermic needle theory: a message sent was a message received
1970s -> John Fisk, Stuart Hall: audiences are intelligent; meaning is not written in stone in the text, meaning lies in the process and the context
Sacramental hermeneutics: in the beginning there was the word (John 1:1)
Speech was seen as creative and powerful
John proposed that the knowledge we needed was in scripture, in the “goodnews”; this is where we find the truth
Inditement of the capitalist regime in England and oppression of the working class – Advertising influences content
Preferred meanings acknowledge that the creator/system that creates will have preferences
Cultural artifact – all things that we create will have layers of meaning
There are resistant, Progressive and preferred meanings that surround each text, each with their own set of contradictions
Sex and the City -> 3rd way feminism, which celebrates a woman’s sexuality; accused of depoliticizing women
Women on top; single women on the hunt for men, each in powerful positions
Women expressing power through consumption without
Sept 12 2013
Business Model
1. Aggregate Audiences -> to hold them captive during advertisements
Crude in the 60-70s because there were only 3 networks, and thus large audiences
2. Segmentation -> refinement in the business model
Advertisers could separate groups based on the type of audience
Packaging up demographic groups and selling them to advertisers
Principles of the production of popular culture
Contradictions embedded -> what aspects of reinforce the current system and which are against it
We have a classes system -> Marxists think that these classes are submissive
Late 1800s – early 1900s -> working class and what they talked about was inferior; always looked down upon
40-50s -> Frankfurt school very Marx heavy
They saw the masses as being weak minded; having deficient genes
The arts did the job of uniting the masses to appreciate “proper” literature/music/art
Hypodermic needle theory: a message sent was a message received
1970s -> John Fisk, Stuart Hall: audiences are intelligent; meaning is not written in stone in the text, meaning lies in the process and the context
Sacramental hermeneutics: in the beginning there was the word (John 1:1)
Speech was seen as creative and powerful
John proposed that the knowledge we needed was in scripture, in the “goodnews”; this is where we find the truth
Inditement of the capitalist regime in England and oppression of the working class – Advertising influences content
Preferred meanings acknowledge that the creator/system that creates will have preferences
Cultural artifact – all things that we create will have layers of meaning
There are resistant, Progressive and preferred meanings that surround each text, each with their own set of contradictions
Sex and the City -> 3rd way feminism, which celebrates a woman’s sexuality; accused of depoliticizing women
Women on top; single women on the hunt for men, each in powerful positions
Women expressing power through consumption without